X MINUS ONE

X Minus One aired on NBC from 24 April 55 until 9 January 58 for a total of 124 episodes with one pilot or audition story. There was a revival of the series in 1973 when radio was attempting to bring back radio drama and it lasted until 1975. The show occupied numerous time slots through out its run in the 50's and thus was never able to generate a large following.

X Minus One was an extension of Dimension X which aired on NBC from 1950-51. The first fifteen scripts used for X Minus One were scripts used in the airing of Dimension X; however, it soon found its own little niche. The stories for the show came from two of the most popular science fiction magazines at the time; Astounding and Galaxy. Adaptations of these stories were performed by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts. They even wrote a few original stories of their own. The writers of the magazine stories were not well known then but now are the giants of today. These stories came from the minds of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Poul Anderson to name a few.

This series has survived from its original airing in high quality to be enjoyed today.

NOTE: Updated with Version 3 files (14-May-2011).

From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group. See "Note" Section below for more information on the OTRR.

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States

Notes

OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHERS GROUP

This is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.

It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.

If you are interested in preserving old time radio, you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Yahoo.


This is the Single Episode Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This page is provided in case you want to sample the shows.

Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.


Relax, listen, and enjoy!

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OTRR Definitions:

OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that is Certified Accurate indicates that all the episodes are properly identified and labeled but that the series does not contain all known extant episodes.

OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that is Certified Complete is the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implies that all the files in the series are Certified Accurate but also indicates that the series is as complete as possible – it includes all extant episodes.

OTRR Non-Certified -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Certification process.

Individual Files

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Reviewer: Out of Stone - - July 25, 2013
Subject: Countdown to hit n miss
Best episodes are set aboard spaceships or on weird Zog-like planets - these are the thoughtful, intelligent and absorbing episodes. Unfortunately, there are far too many jokey, throwaway episodes (mostly from '57) resulting in tedium, which can be counteracted only by a deadly earnest inter-galactic spaceflight in Exploring Tomorrow.

Reviewer: TomBaker - - October 28, 2012
Subject: Best radio show in existence.
Just downloaded the entire works, this is a great place to offer free downloads like this, I'm a young guy, but I can sure appreciate the classics. If only I'd been born a few decades earlier.

Reviewer: Media Lover - - October 22, 2012
Subject: Only Second To Reading A Sci-Fi Book!
These X Minus One series are just gems that need to be treasured for future generations. In this era of CGI and other computer manipulated images, the simple telling of science fiction tales through just the audio mode is still thrilling and effective. The imaginative juices are just kicked to jumpstart and go places where no joysticks on the video control panels have gone before.

Like I said in the title, the only things that beat these radio shows, in terms of thrilling imaginations, are the science fiction books that I had read over the years.

Reviewer: NadaClue - - July 21, 2011
Subject: X Minus One
I was 5 years old when this radio show went off the air. It was truely brilliant and the precursor to TV shows like "The Twlight Zone", "The Outer Limits", and “Star Trek”. I thank you for re-opening the best 3-D experience possible. The theater of the mind!

Reviewer: madasaboxoffrogs - - September 30, 2010
Subject: X Minus One
Episode 38 Skulking Permit is worth the 5 stars just on its own – if you just listen to one episode make it that one. I could see the ending coming a mile off and it didn't arrive instead it proved to be even more subversive than I thought it was going to be well done Robert Sheckley – won't give the ending away here.

Episode 36 Cave of Night was the first one I listened to as I had already heard all of Dimension X. This was whilst walking home through town and Earth signeled the space ship I started to cry – got even more funny looks than usual.

So far I'm only up to episode 50, I hope there is at least another episode as good as #38